1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an accumulator for rotary compressor to the extension of the length of an accumulator for a rotary compressor and to a method of extending the length of an accumulator for a rotary compressor.
2. Description of the Conventional Art
FIGS. 1 to 3 show the structure of an accumulator in a conventional rotary compressor and its surrounding area.
A shell 2 defines the external appearance of the accumulator 1. A separator plate 3 the liquid refrigerant 10 flowing through a S-tube 12; which is installed inside the shell 2, from falling directly to the lower part of a accumulator 1. A screen 4 filters the impurities contained in the liquid refrigerant 10 flowing through the S-tube 12. A L-tube 5 separates the liquid refrigerant 10 from gaseous refrigerant 11, sending only the gaseous refrigerant 11 to a cylinder 8 through a suction compartment 16. An oil groove 6 formed at the L-tube 5 to allow oil 7 within the shell 2 to flow into a cylinder 8. A first fixing strip 9 is connected with a second fixing strip 13 formed at the compressor to fix the accumulator 1 to the compressor. This also allows a groove 15 formed at the second fixing strip to connect a projection 14 formed at the first fixing strip 9 with the second fixing strip 13 (see FIG. 3).
The operational motion of the above-described conventional rotary compressor's accumulator structured is described in the following:
As shown in the FIGS. 1 to 3, the liquid refrigerant 10 is introduced into the accumulator 1 through the S-tube 12 formed at the upper part of the accumulator 1.
In order to prevent the introduced liquid refrigerant 10 from falling directly down to the lower part of the accumulator 1, the separator plate 3 is provided. Separator plate 3 requires the liquid refrigerant 10 to pass through the separator plate 3 and then flow down to the lower part of the accumulator 1.
Impurities contained in the liquid refrigerant 10 are filtered through a screen 4. As such, the filtered liquid refrigerant 10 is accumulated inside the shell 2.
Oil 7 is introduced into a cylinder 8 after being sent to the L-tube 5 through the oil groove 6 formed at the L-tube 5.
The L-tube 5 separates the gaseous refrigerant 11 and the liquid refrigerant 10. Only the seperated gaseous refrigerant 11 is introduced into the accumulator 1.
When the length of the L-tube 5 is too short, the height of the oil surface of the liquid refrigerant 10 becomes higher than that of the L-tube 5, enabling the liquid refrigerant 10 to be introduced into the cylinder 8 and causing the reliability of the L-tube 5 to be diminished. Therefore, the length of the L-tube 5 should be extended to an appropriate height.
However, as shown in FIG. 2, the length of the L-tube 5 must be sufficiently short to fix the accumulator 1 on the rotary compressor and to sustain the weight of the accumulator 1. Therefore, as shown in the FIG. 3, only one first fixing strip 9 is used to fix and sustain the accumulator.
The accumulator 1 is fixed on the rotary compressor as follows:
A second fixing strip 13 is welded on the rotary compressor. Then after strip 13 is welded on the rotary compressor both projections 14 of the first fixing strip 9 are inserted into the grooves 15 formed on the second fixing strip 13. Thus, the accumulator 1 is fixed and sustained on the rotary compressor. The first fixing strip 9 also reduces vibration and noise deriving from the accumulator 1. PA1 Refrigerant transferring means lengthly extended around the circumference of the compressor, to separate the liquid refrigerant and the gaseous refrigerant in the accumulator and to send only the gaseous refrigerant into a cylinder; and pipe fixing means fixing the refrigerant transferring means to the compressor, to prevent the movement of the refrigerant transferring means.
However, since the accumulator of the conventional rotary compressor improved efficiency based primarily on the diameter of the L-tube and the total internal volume (cubic volume) of the accumulator considerable improvement was not obtained in terms of the energy efficiency for the compressor. Thus, improvements in efficiency were made within the energy efficiency ratio of 0.1.